Ullmark makes 31 saves, Senators hold off late rally by Red Wings

DETROIT -- Linus Ullmark made 31 saves for the Ottawa Senators, who held off a late rally by the Detroit Red Wings for a 4-3 win at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday.

“I think we played a lot of good minutes tonight, more than we did in our last game,” said Ullmark, who helped Ottawa go 5-for-6 on the penalty kill against the third-best power play in the NHL. “That’s a good team and they are desperate, but we responded well.”

Thomas Chabot, Tim Stutzle, David Perron and Michael Amadio scored for Ottawa (38-28-5), which has won eight of its past 11 games and holds the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, six points ahead of the Montreal Canadiens.

“I really liked our game,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “We were very resilient in the first period when we took five penalties, and we just kept playing.”

Lucas Raymond had a goal and an assist for the Red Wings (33-33-6), who have lost four of five and sit three points behind the Canadiens having played one more game. Alex Lyon allowed three goals on 10 shots before being replaced by Cam Talbot, who made 21 saves.

“Our inability to win tonight and everybody else ending up losing keeps us right where we were, but the clock is ticking,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “You run out of time if you can’t capitalize on other teams’ mistakes, and we haven’t been able to do that.”

The Senators killed an early power play before taking a 1-0 lead on their first shot. Fabian Zetterlund got the puck as he came out of the box and set up Chabot for wrist shot from the slot at 5:49.

Stutzle skated around Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider in the left circle and scored with a wrist shot to make it 2-0 at 13:01.

Seconds after Ottawa killed Detroit’s fifth power play, Perron made it 3-0 at 1:33 of the second period. He took a lead pass from Drake Batherson and skated in alone to lift a quick wrist shot over Lyon’s glove.

“When you have five power plays in the first 22 minutes of a game and don’t score, a couple things happen,” McLellan said. “The other team gets a lot of confidence, their goaltender starts to feel really good and you wonder if you are ever going to get one.”

Perron has 10 points (seven goals, three assists) in his past 13 games – a similar late-season surge to his 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in Detroit’s final 11 games last season.

“I’m not looking for excuses, but there have been a lot of factors this season,” said Perron, who missed two months earlier this season with a back injury. “Just changing teams was tough and then I had to come back from the injury.

“I’m finally getting settled.”

Patrick Kane cut it to 3-1 at 5:25 of the third period, tapping in Alex DeBrincat’s cross-crease pass for a power-play goal on Detroit’s sixth opportunity.

Amadio squeezed a wrist shot through Talbot’s pads on a breakaway to make it 4-1 at 8:44.

Raymond responded to cut it to 4-2 at 11:50 when he took a pass from Marco Kasper alone in front and slipped it between Ullmark’s pads, and Vladimir Tarasenko brought the Red Wings within 4-3 at 15:30 with a snap shot from the slot off a centering pass from J.T. Compher.

NOTES: Perron was cheered loudly after a tribute video honoring his two seasons with the Red Wings. … Kane has 36 points (15 goals, 21 assists) in 26 career games against the Senators. … Ullmark improved to 9-2-2 in 13 games against Detroit.